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The Scottish sawmill group James Jones & Sons has invested EUR 26.5m in a new, highly technological sawmill in Lockerbie and Söderhamn Eriksson has delivered the bandsaw line for it. “Söderhamn Eriksson is without any doubt a worldwide leading supplier of bandsaw solutions,” says Ian Pirie, CEO of James Jones & Sons.
The group is Scotland’s largest lumber producer with six strategically placed sawmills and an annual production of 465,000 m3. When the Lockerbie 3 sawmill was completed in 2009, the region had received a “super site“, namely one of Europe’s largest and most advanced lumber production plants.
“The location of the Lockerbie plant is perfect – close to the motorway and close to England,“ says Ian Pirie. Lockerbie 3 is part of a larger investment, now totaling more than EUR 47M, and will have an annual capacity per shift of 150,000 m3 lumber – more than twice the capacity of the sawmill that was replaced by Lockerbie 3. To be able to cope with the volumes produced by the new saw line at Lockerbie 3, James Jones announced in 2011 that an additional six lumber dryers had been purchased, bringing the number of dryers to 16 with an annual capacity exceeding 160,000 m3, which makes it one of Europe’s largest lumber drying plants.

Flexibility and yield
The saw line delivered by Söderhamn Eriksson to Lockerbie 3 includes 13 bandsaws, two canters and two edger optimizers. This is the fifth saw line James Jones has bought from Söderhamn Eriksson since the 1980s. “There were a number of reasons why we chose Söderhamn Eriksson as our supplier of the saw line for Lockerbie 3,” explains Ian Pirie. “First of all, we’ve had a good relationship with them for many years where they have proven to be a reliable supplier. We have been looking for a bandsaw supplier who could give us the speed and the flexibility we needed to maximize production and recovery from each of our varying log assortments. Söderhamn Eriksson was also the supplier who could give us the saw line with the highest flexibility and, thus, most able to maximize our yield. Lockerbie 3 means improvements of quality, recovery and production rate with three-dimensional laser technology that scans each log and calculates optimum saw patterns.“Söderhamn Eriksson had been asked to guarantee James Jones a production capacity of 145,000 m3 at Lockerbie 3. This target had already been reached in the performance tests after six months of production.

Turn-key plant
James Jones built the premises and did the ground work, while Söderhamn Eriksson delivered everything else in the saw line project, complete with waste handling plant and all electrical installation. The contract allowed not quite nine months from erection start to final performance acceptance. This timeframe was met. The sawmill was intended to complement and improve existing infrastructure and woodworking facilities, which included drying, planing, sorting, ripping and packeting capacity. “The project was a huge success, and the plant was completed as scheduled,” says Ian Pirie. ”It’s the largest development project of its kind the company has realized to date, and everything went very smoothly. This reflects the longstanding cooperation we’ve had with all our contractors and suppliers. And Söderhamn Eriksson is one of our most experienced and reliable suppliers.“

AKE Sawmaster – reliable sawing for best economy
Our AKE-Sawmaster bandsaw is an example of how we at Söderhamn Eriksson constantly work towards further development of our products,” says Mats Ekberg, Product Manager. “In short, you can say that the Sawmaster has become a best-seller with higher capacity and higher dimensional accuracy than earlier bandsaws of that size.“ Sawmaster’s feed speed reaches 120 m/min. “Ever since the mid-1950s we have delivered heavy-duty bandsaws to the sawmill industry, and our collected experience from this has culminated in the Sawmaster, “ explains Mats Ekberg. “The Sawmaster gives significantly enhanced reliability and control of the sawing process. Also its capacity is high in relation to its motor power thanks to the optimized sawing process, cutting energy consumption. Among other things, we’ve modified the feedworks, which are now very stable and available for straight as well as curve-sawing. Cants can be broken down both with cut surfaces all along the cant and without cut surfaces at the cant top, which increases recovery. The CAR feedworks that are included in the Sawmaster enable curve-sawing with extra high dimensional accuracy, following the log’s natural sweep. When the cant has entered the CAR feedworks, the previous feedworks loosen their grip and precise curve-sawing takes place between the CAR rollers. In addition to improving recovery, it improves lumber quality”. CAR means “Cant Alignment, Radius-Independent“ and is Söderhamn Eriksson‘s patented concept for optimized dimensional accuracy and curve-sawing properties of bandsaws. The Sawmaster is a module-designed machine that can be adapted to many different applications. It is delivered complete with internal hydraulics and electrical wiring and can be used as a primary or secondary breakdown saw , as a separate unit or combined with a canter, and in groups of two, three or four bandsaws.

Fakta:

James Jones & Sons, Lockerbie 3 sawmill
Owner: James Jones & Sons Ltd (family-owned)Operation: Softwood sawmill with 13 AKE Sawmaster bandsaws, 2 canters and 2 Exeltec edger optimizers, all from Söderhamn Eriksson.Production: Some 150,000 m3 sawn timber per year and shiftEmployees: 90 to run two sawmills, one planing mill and associated log yards etc, when producing over 250,000 m3Other: Total investment at the Lockerbie mill is some EUR 47M.Website: www.jamesjones.co.uk